Power to those who can afford it; Road to nowhere; Restore faith in APD

Sunday

Jan 15, 2012 at 12:01 AMDec 12, 2018 at 8:06 AM

Power to those who can afford it

Re: Jan. 2 article, "Power plant's fate at center of debate."

The Sierra Club is demanding Austin Energy sell its stake in the coal-burning Fayette power plant. However, the plant will still operate, and the emissions will remain the same. The only plus offered: Austin will be able to shout we are truly "the greenest in the land."

This will be an expensive and elitist symbol. Expensive because energy rates will be forced even higher because of the loss of an economically efficient and dependable generator of electricity. Elitist because Sierra Club members, mostly decent middle- and upper-class folks, can afford to be conveniently oblivious to those living paycheck to paycheck. Increased utility rates, along with escalating taxes, are turning Austin into "White Bread City." We should be focused on making our city more affordable and more diverse, not less so. Let's forget symbolism and face economic reality for the greater good of the entire community.

Mike Levy

Austin

Road to nowhere

Re: Jan. 3 column, "11 key road projects in works for 2012."

I enjoyed Ben Wear's "Getting There" feature on 2012 road projects.

I have lived in Austin since 1979 and concede that some good improvements have been made. U.S. 183 and Ben White Boulevard, as well as the widening of RM 2222, RM 620 and RM 2244 and the ongoing Texas 71 improvements come to mind.

That being said, Interstate 35, Loop 1 (MoPac) (between 183 and 360) and Loop 360 are pathetic jokes that are the real road problems in Austin.

What has the City of Austin, the State of Texas or the Texas Department of Transportation done to improve I-35, MoPac or 360? It is going to take a lot more than a little re-striping to help the ever-worsening traffic on these ill-conceived nightmares.

I guess the mayor, our brilliant City Council and the powers that be just do not have the will or the gumption to make real changes to these roadway bottlenecks that make Austin look plain foolish.

Toby Zinnecker

Austin

Restore faith in APD

In the very recent past, the Austin Police Department's record has been very disappointing. A questionable shooting incident of a teenager, possible excessive use of force on a woman combined with intimidating and arresting those who tried to document the incident, expediting a driving while intoxicated case because the perpetrator was a local celebrity — and these are just the more publicized incidents.

In each case, APD's immediate reaction is to deny wrongdoing before even beginning any investigation.

Police Chief Art Acevedo has created a culture of impunity within the APD, and because of the behavior that has resulted from that, our community loses more respect for the department each time a questionable incident occurs.

It is time for Acevedo to bring an ethical standard back to the APD culture or step down and let someone take charge who will restore public faith in the department.

Nick Wong

Austin

Inconvenient change

The people of Austin are not "asking" the Austin City Council to forget the bag ban; the people of Austin are telling them to do so. They are also saying "no exceptions."

If a given group of people wishes to carry reuseable bags, that is their privilege.

But selling plastic bags to customers is not acceptable. Imagine the chaos and added delay at the check-out counter in a large grocery, where clerks determine which plastic bags are free and which are to be paid for.

Suppose the ban is approved — and customers refuse to buy and use store-furnished bags. The demand is gone, stocks of bags pile up, and the manufaturers of plastic bags are forced to close, as well as plastic bag recyclers.

Citizens are being charged for solid waste services, anti-litter service, trash carts, drainage service and of course, taxes. What is this revenue paying for?

Remington Webster

Austin

Expect best of youths

Reducing crime and creating effective accountability for children who break the law means doing business differently. It will take more of the rehabilitation programs proven to turn lives around — and less of the outdated thinking that treats kids as little more than underage prisoners.

On the Texans Care for Children website, we present state agency data for 2010: Texas referred 61,619 youths to the juvenile justice system; at the end of the year, 1,798 children were in state facilities (including about 700 youth who were committed before 2010). It's likely that today those numbers are even lower, because Texas is moving in the right direction and keeping more youths closer to home for rehabilitation. However, progress is not the same as ensured success. Texas created a separate justice system for youths out of the belief and expectation that kids can turn their lives around. Our juvenile justice reform implementation must rest on a similar foundation — expecting not just kids but also our system to change.

Eileen Garcia

Chief executive officer

Texans Care for Children

Austin

Feasibility of desalination

Re: Jan. 8 article, "Legislator draws up water plan."

Finally, an elected leader who is thinking for the long term about the state's growing need for water by using the Gulf of Mexico as an additional source for the growing Texas population.

We pipe oil and gas for hundreds of miles across the countryside, water is piped from the snow pack to the populated cities in California, and cities like Tampa, Fla., and El Paso supplement their fresh water sources through desalination plants. The higher cost of desalination and pumping can be reduced through wind-generated energy production because wind is a constant along the coast.

Minerals gleaned from the desalination process can be sold or used as fill. There are plenty of holes in Texas. Will it be expensive to desalinate and pipe Gulf of Mexico water throughout Central and West Texas? Certainly. But compare that expense to the cost of having insufficient water and a diminishing state economy.

Douglas Batson

batson@austin.rr.com

Austin

Return of the Aggie

Come home, Rick. Do right by retirement, please. As a seventh-generation Texan, to comments from my out-of-state friends (in-state, too), in defense of the escapades of our illustrious governor, I can only offer my favorite Aggie joke:

What did Jesus tell the Aggies?

Y'all play dumb till I get back.

With a new generation behind me, I'm confident that we will ride out this rough spell.

Russell Buster

Marble Falls

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